The high-rise building that still sits at 1300 E. Lafayette on the eastern edge of downtown was built in the early 1960s and hailed as the ultimate in modern city living. Some of the Motown greats of the day resided there, including Diana Ross, and they rubbed shoulders daily with other prominent Detroiters, black and white, who consciously chose urban living over the suburbs.

That’s the setting for the new play “1300 Lafayette East” by Brooke Berman, which is making its debut via a handsome Jewish Ensemble Theatre-Plowshares Theatre coproduction. Unlike playwright Lisa D’Amour’s “Detroit,” which was produced locally last season, Berman’s play has a strong sense of place. Where “Detroit” was barely about Detroit at all, “1300 Lafayette East” is rich in Motor City details and history and also offers insights that are relevant to the city today.

It begins in the apartment building’s lobby, where Reena (Lisa Lauren Smith), an aspiring Motown singer, is locked out of her apartment and stranded in her nightgown. Coming to her aid is Elly (Sharla Mills), a Jewish newlywed and housewife, who invites her upstairs for coffee. Reena, ever aware of their racial differences, notes that invitation sounds more like an order.

Still, the two become friends. Elly uses her connections to help Reena transition from backup vocalist to solo act, and Elly matures, too, launching a possible career in public relations while standing up to her lawyer husband David (Andrew Papa), who often treats her like a child.

The production benefits from strong leads. Smith, who has previously appeared with JET and on other local stages, brings experience and a certain world-weariness to Reena. She shines brightest at the beginning of the second act while delivering a vocal performance that brought spontaneous applause from an audience last weekend.

Newcomer Mills is also perfectly cast as the energetic but sheltered Elly, whose motives for helping Reena get called into question as the play goes on. Like Smith, the model-thin Mills looks stunning in the vintage outfits supplied by costume designer Christa Koerner.

The show is also spot-on in terms of set design, with Alexander Carr employing a few stark pieces of ’60s modern furniture along with a trio of screens on which he projects textures as a backdrop. Historic photos of the city accompany the scene changes, which are set to pop hits of the period. (You’ll definitely hear a lot of Motown.)

Directed by Plowshares artistic director Gary Anderson, “1300 Lafayette East” is not completely devoid of cliches or predictability. Because it is set in 1967, the year racial unrest sent many white Detroiters packing for the suburbs, you have a Titanic-sized idea about how the show is going to end. Also problematic are a couple of secondary characters who come across more as concepts than actual people. A monologue about police violence delivered by black teenager William (Bello Pizzimenti) is a contrived way to put across issues of inequality already expressed more organically in the script by Reena.

Playwright Berman, who was born in Huntington Woods, based “1300 Lafayette East” on stories she heard from her mother and grandmother about Detroit in its heyday. She uses the building as a towering symbol of the city’s desire to create a sophisticated place where diverse residents could live in relative harmony.

Though much of the play’s audience will consist of mature JET subscribers, it ought to be required viewing for the young professionals who are slowly making their way back to the city, picking up where Reena and Elly so dramatically left off nearly half a century ago.